Kremlin tightens control of industry

VERKHNYAYA SALDA, Russia, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Some private Russian companies that emerged after the Soviet collapse are being brought back under state control, in a Kremlin shift from free enterprise.

Other successful companies are being consolidated in the hands of businessmen loyal to the current authorities, The Washington Post reports.

Government ministers and Kremlin insiders now sit on the boards of Russia's largest companies.

VSMPO-Avisma Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of the lightweight metal titanium and a key supplier for Boeing Co., Airbus and Rolls-Royce, is a recent prominent example of a state takeover, the Post says.

The state-owned Russian arms-trading company, Rosoboronexport, this month took the majority of seats on the VSMPO-Avisma board after acquiring 66 percent of the company's shares.

The new board chairman is Sergei Chemezov, the head of Rosoboronexport and a former KGB officer who served in Dresden, East Germany, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow's emergence as a preeminent business player has led to charges the Kremlin is using its vast powers to force itself on unwilling partners and wield its new economic clout as a foreign policy weapon while enriching political insiders.